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What Is the North Reach? Today I have the all-new 2024 North Reach. This is a kite that I was fortunate enough to test at the North dealer meeting in Portugal, and I ended up falling in love with it. Granted, it is my kind of kite: a three strut, all-around, do-everything canopy. It's going to be similar to kites like the Duotone Evo, the Slingshot Code, the Reedin Supermodel, the Cabrina Moto, and the Naish Pivot. They're all in that three strut, "do everything a little faster wit …

What's in a Name? Matt: Probably the most exciting new kite that we have is the new Code Zero. You're probably wondering why a one-strut kite is called "Code Zero". It's a little callout to our sailing heritage with the North brand. Code Zero is a legendary light wind racing spinnaker, so with this being a light wind performance foiling kite, it's a sort of callout to the heritage of the North Sailing brand. Jake: Well, it looks epic and the staff here has absolutely loved it, as …

Jake from MACkite here today with the 2022 Manera Halo harness. I wanted to provide a mid-season update on this to let you guys know what we're loving and what we're not loving.I just came off the water with this bad boy today. One of the original problems I had with this is that I started with a size that was too small for my body. About two years ago, pre-pandemic, I was a medium. However, the medium just was not the right fit this year. I was feeling all of the hard shell and none of …

Shop Pads & Straps. Jake from MACkite here. Today we're going to do a general overview on the 2022 Cabrinha bindings. I'll also include my thoughts since I do have experience on all of these.2022 Cabrinha Bindings The Cabrina H1 is their most simplified binding. It's just a single strap system, but it works really well. It's functional; it's basic. The H2O binding has two adjustment straps. It also has a density pad underneath so you can harden or soften it underneath your heel. It's …

Why Choose Carbon? The Sonar foil system comes in a full carbon version in addition to the full alloy setup. North is one of the few brands that has a full carbon fuselage, not just a carbon mast. Carbon masts are relatively easy to produce, but saving the weight off of the fuselage is actually more important. Think about yourself holding a five-pound weight in close. You can hold it there all day, but you know how heavy it gets if you hold it out. The same thing applies at the end of the m …

Duotone has introduced the Evo D/LAB, a high-performance all-rounder kite that is designed to take freeriding to the next level. The Evo D/LAB is an improvement of the popular Evo kite, and it offers riders a unique experience on the water that is hard to come by with regular kites. The kite is built using Aluula frame construction technology that reduces its overall weight by up to 30%. This reduction in weight makes the kite incredibly light and ensures it can fly in the lightest of …

Straight to the Sinker?with Matt Aiken from North Kiteboarding Jake: What size board did you get started with, and what size are you on now? Matt: I haven't changed too much there. I've dabbled in some smaller boards. I learned on 135 liters, and I'm about 215 pounds. I learned in flat water and some pretty strong winds in Cape Hatteras. Jake: Lucky you! I'm not knocking our spot; we love it here, but flat water it is not. Matt: That definitely helps. Strong winds and fla …

What are Your Favorite North Sonar Foils for Kite and Wing Foiling?with Matt Aiken from North KiteboardingJake: What is your favorite front wing for winging and kiting?Matt: For kiting I ride this big 1500. It's cool; it goes plenty quick, but it's also got a really low stall speed. For fooling around riding waves and stuff, it can be really fun, so I like it a lot for kiting.For winging, with this being my first season, I started on our giant 2200, and that was really great for learning. …

Today we are talking about choosing your first kiteboard. I'm going to go through what I think the best flow is, then I'm going to delve a little bit into the philosophy, and finally we're going to figure out which is the right direction for you.Start with a Basic Board and Upgrade as You ProgressGenerally, I think the best way to get started is to pick a very big and basic board. You don't need a lot of bells and whistles while you're figuring out how to water start, ride, do your first up …

Welcome back to MACkite! This is Jake and Dustin, and today we have some new Waydoo accessories. We're going to give you our first impressions with the new Waydoo Gliding wing and folding prop.Jake: We just got them in and we've been waiting a long time for these, so we were super excited. There's just one issue: it's currently winter here in Michigan, and although the lake is not frozen over, which is epic, it's about half a degree above freezing. We sent Pat and Dustin out to try these …

Welcome back to MACkite. This is Jake, and today we are talking about whether it's better to learn in lighter winds or heavier winds. Of course, this is just my personal experience and, being here in Michigan, we probably experience more light winds than heavy winds, so that's going to impact my answer slightly.My personal thought is that light wind is a better environment for learning to kite. I think it's probably easier to learn in heavier winds, but that doesn't necessarily translate t …

This is Jake from MACkiteboarding, and today we're going to do a topic I discuss every couple years because, as technology progresses, I think it makes sense to revisit it, and that is whether purchasing used gear is a good way to get into the sport of kiteboarding. We probably need to have a discussion on winging as well since that is evolving and changing so much, but here we're focusing on kiteboarding, and the answer to that is yes... and no. It really depends on where the gear is …

Hello, everybody. Welcome back to MACkiteboarding. This is Jake, and today I have the new 2023 North Flex LX footpads.Another footpad review, you might be asking? Yes, but these are super, super cool. It goes without saying that I really like the two strap zonal adjustment footstraps. I'm kind of a simp for the Duotone Entity straps. The issue with those is that the hole spacing leaves them incompatible with most boards on the market. They're sized to have a seven-inch spacing, while most …

Welcome back to MACkite. This is Jake, and today we are answering the question about whether you should take a lesson before getting into kiteboarding. Honestly, I think the answer is "yes", but I'm going to talk a little bit about my personal experience, why I think that answer is yes, and I'll also go over the steps that you should take to have a safe and successful kiteboarding journey if you don't take a lesson.My Experience When Learning to KiteboardTo be honest, when I got started wit …

Welcome back to MACkiteboarding. This is Jake, and today I'm going to talk about something we have a lot of experience with here in Michigan, and that is making the most of those light wind days. I'm going to break it down into the three ways to do it: a big kite, a big board, and a hydrofoil. I'll rank them based on my personal preferences, take you through what I like and don't like about each, and hopefully that helps you to decide which direction you want to go when it comes to ex …